The Snake in the Lion's Coat
by makatttack
Summary: It's been a few years after the war, everyone's finally started to settle down and live their lives now that they're free to do so. That is until the Ministry decides to enact a marriage law forcing all witches and wizards between the ages of 17 and 45 to marry within the year and start popping out children, but was the law really the ministry's idea to begin with?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hermione smiled as she looked at the contents of the manila folder before placing it back in it's place. She glanced at the delicate golden watch that was wrapped around her wrist, she had only five minutes until the announcement. She slipped out of the room making her way down the ministry hall, her high-heels leaving the click-clack sound as she walked. She entered the chamber and quickly made her way to her front row spot next to Harry. He gave her a small smile and a squeeze to her hand before turning his attention back towards the court officials whispering about in front of them. Hermione looked down at her watch again, two minutes to go. She glanced at Harry who was radiating with worry.

Today was the day the ministry was going to announce whether or not a marriage law would be enacted. It was brought up a few years prior, but with the war so fresh in everyone's minds it was quickly thrown out, at least it was until a few months ago. It started with small whispers here and there, a seed planted in their minds but soon it sprouted and no longer was it just an idea. Publicly Hermione fought tooth and nail for the law not to be passed, she claimed it was inappropriate and in no way necessary. She stormed into several committee meetings making it clear to everyone how much she disagreed. She was nothing but the usual brash gryffindor barreling her way along to get what she deemed right done.

"Attention!" yelled the court official, yet that chatter did not cease, "ATTENTION!" he yelled again this time banging the gavel. The entire room went dead silent waiting for what was about to come next. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current Minister of Magic, stood up, his eyes glancing across the crowd. Hermione swore she saw him aim an apologetic look towards her before he began speaking.

"While this may not be the most ideal situation for the majority of you, it has been officially decided that the marriage law will be put in place as of today. I know this will be hard to adjust to, but we must stick together as a wizarding community in order to repopulate and strengthen ties. The war has devastated our numbers dramatically and sadly, they have not improved by much these last couple of years as we had originally hoped." The silence lasted for several second before the room went into the uproar, people were shouting about the unfairness and being too young. Hermione quickly glanced at Harry taking in his defeated posture and the look of pity placed upon his face as he looked at her. That's right, Harry wouldn't even be affected by this law, no the Boy-Who-Lived was happily married to Ginny Weasley who was currently pregnant with their first child.

The sound of a gravel pounding soon silenced the room again. Kingsley continued speaking, "The ministry will be pairing those who are between the ages of 17 and 45 using the information we have on file and the best of divination." Hermione couldn't help but snort at that one. "This will ensure the matches are well suited and likely to succeed. You will be given a year to marry after receiving your match which will soon be coming by owl. You will be required to stay married for a minimum of at least ten years, granted you have produced at least two children from the union." This only caused another uproar to start. "If you and your match are unable to conceive and can prove you made an attempt and are legitimately unable to conceive other options will be discussed with you. As a courtesy we announced this to our Ministry of Magic employees today, however the official announcement will be featured in The Daily Prophet tomorrow morning. You shall receive your letters containing your matches within the week. That is all, have a good night."

Kingsley made a quick exit, and Hermione couldn't blame the man. He looked quite peckish which wasn't very surprising. After all he would have to deal with much backlash from this, the man would have to even marry himself. The uproar was sparked again almost instantly. Harry kept watching her, his piercing green eyes filled to the brim with pity.

"I'm so sorry 'Moine." Harry wrapped her in a tight hug, "Maybe you'll get matched with Ron, that'd make this whole thing a bit easier, right?"

Hermione smiled tightly, "Yeah maybe," was all she could say. In all honestly, that was the absolute worst idea. Now don't get the wrong idea, she loved Ron and all, just not in a romantic way. He was like her brother, they had tried to be together after the war but it never felt truly right. No, Hermione had a plan for her future, one that didn't include Ron.

"Let's get you home," Harry said placing a hand on her back and leading her out the door directing them toward the floo. She bid Harry a goodbye and flooed home immediately kicking off her heels and doing a jump for joy. She had done it, she had really done it. The law was passed and the rest of her plan would soon fall into place, like dominos. She known when the law was first brought up it was more of a joke than anything else, no one was seriously thinking about pushing it through. However, Hermione thought differently. She saw the potential the law had, the ways she could use it in her favor.

Hermione knew it couldn't be passed right after the war though, no the system was too fragile and the people's trust way too low. It would take time, people needed to settle, so she waited until the ministry's annual ball nine months ago before planting the seed. She simply asked someone about a marriage law being placed, that she had heard someone mention the possibility the other day while passing through the minister's floor. That really got the ball rolling, in a few short days everyone was buzzing about the law and very few were happy with it.

Hermione started publicly opposing the law, saying it was disgusting and demeaning towards everything they had just fought for only a few short years ago. When a committee was finally formed to really think on the law, Hermione barreled her way into their meetings like the brash gryffindor they all knew her to be shouting about the laws unfairness and the lack of respect it showed them as free citizens. When Hermione mentioned the possibility of Purebloods and Muggle-borns being married as a result and the potential danger some may be placed in, she knew she'd hit the jackpot. The committees eyes practically glowed with the realization, potential dangers? No no, the law could be used to intermingle the people, different bloods could only bring forth more tolerance, right? They would use it to help rid people of their prejudice. What better way to do that then force them to marry each other. While Hermione didn't believe this to be entirely true, their reasonings didn't mean much to her. Just as long as they pushed the law through she could care less how they justified it to themselves and the rest of the citizens.

The law was no longer just a whisper in the halls, it was becoming more real day by day. Other reasons started getting mentioned; lack of witches and wizards being married, lack of children being born, and an apparent rise of squibs being born. Slowly but surely all sorts of reasons were dragged out making the law seem more and more necessary.

Hermione sat a her kitchen table along a bottle of her favorite red wine along and her favorite glass. Tonight she was celebrating, phase one of her plan was complete and she could not be more thrilled. Tomorrow morning everyone in wizarding Britain would hear the law had been approved, and within the the week her match would find out he was paired with her. Oh how she wished she could be there to see his face when he opened up that letter.

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 **A/N - So first of all I would just like to thank you for reading this so far and hopefully you enjoyed it. This is my first fanfiction and I wrote this in half an hour at 4am so if there are mistakes I'm sorry but I think I found most of them. Anyways, thanks again for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - I'm sooooooo sorry I left this story hanging for TWO years, I feel terrible! I even had half of this chapter already written (since legit July of 2016) so honestly I don't know what happened. But hey, on the bright side I'm back and excited to continue this story along with my other story I just started - A World Upside Down. Thanks to all of you have reviewed in the past, I appreciate your support so much. I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!**

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Narcissa sat at the table drinking her cup of tea while looking over the paper. She sighed and prepared herself for whatever hell storm was about to occur as soon as Draco read this. She folded the paper back up and sat it down by Draco's plate before returning her attention to her breakfast.

Soon Draco stepped into the dining area looking perfectly put together like he did every morning, not a single hair was out of place. Narcissa noted he seemed rather chipper for such a day, he had obviously not seen the prophet yet this morning. Draco took his spot in his usual chair, their house elf, Mipsy, poured Draco his coffee and served his usual breakfast.

"Good morning Mother," Draco said with a nod while picking up the paper.

"Good morning darling" she replied, "Did you sleep well?"

"I did actu-" he started while picking up the newspaper. Draco's eyes widened with disbelief, "Are you fucking kidding me?" he growled out.

"Draco, language." Narcissa chided.

"Sorry Mother, but this is preposterous, who the hell would even want to pass this?" he muttered throwing the paper down on the table. "There must be something we can do mother, there's no way in hell I'm letting that damn ministry decide who I'm spending at least the next ten years with." he said with the shake of his head. "We still have some contacts there, and I'm sure with the right price this whole disaster could be solved. I could marry one of the Greengrass girls, Astoria's still single."

"Draco," Narcissa commanded, "give it a rest. You very well know we no longer hold an ounce of power in that ministry, and even if we did, you read the article. You will most likely be paired with a half blood or muggleborn if anything. It's out of our hands and you best come to terms with that."

Draco looked at his mother and sighed knowing she was right. Their family no longer held the status it did before the war, Lucius was in Azkaban and while he had taken over the company he still had lots of work to do to better their name.

"How are you so calm about this?" Draco wondered. "You spat the muggleborn hatred just as much as father did." Draco no longer held his old beliefs, he knew now that he had been blinded by his upbringing. Muggleborns blood was the same color as his, Hermione Granger sure proved that, right in this very manor. He just couldn't understand how his mother was being so flippant about him possibly being married off to one, there wasn't an ounce of outrage.

"I know, and I apologize greatly for that. But times have changed and I've realized now that those prejudices are more dangerous than anything." she sighed. "I'm not sure if I ever even believed them, not completely. It was just easier to go along with it then fight my family. Especially after 'Dromeda left." She did truly regret following her family's ways and then Lucius's the way she did. It had brought nothing but pain and heartache. Oh her poor boy she thought solemnly.

"I forgive you Mother, you know that." Draco sighed, "Sorry to dredge up the past, I know you'd rather not discuss it."

"It's fine darling, and you never know maybe this law could bring you some happiness." She smiled softly, "It could be a blessing in disguise." Draco had to hold back the snort at that one, yeah right he thought. He read over the paper once more, it looked like he would receive his letter with the name of his intended sometime in the next week. He massaged his temples and excused himself from the table giving his mother a quick kiss on the cheek. He needed to go see Blaise.

Draco came through Blaise's floo to see him eating breakfast with Pansy. They looked sickenly happy, he could puke. However, he was glad to see that two of his oldest friends had found love with each other, they deserved it. He just hoped this law wouldn't ruin it. He threw the newspaper on the table between them, "Have you seen this yet?"

"Yeah, we were gonna stop by after breakfast and see how you had taken the news." Blasie sighed, "I'm sorry man, it blows."

Draco sat down at the table, "It does, but it's gotta be worse for you guys though. What are you gonna do if your not matched together." Draco missed the look Blaise and Pansy shared. "It even says they're trying to pair different blood statuses together, aren't you guys worried?' When neither of them said anything Draco was confused.

"What? Am I missing something?" Pansy continued fiddling with her left ring finger and that's when Draco saw it. A silver band covered in small diamonds with a large emerald in the middle, under that ring laid another silver band encrusted with alternating diamonds and emeralds. He didn't know how he had missed it in the first place.

"When?" Draco choked out, "and why the hell did you guys not tell me?"

"Last month," Pansy said quietly. "The law was getting mentioned more and more and we started to get worried."

"You know that business trip I took to France last month?" asked Blaise scratching his head awkwardly, "Well Pans came along and we decided on a whim that we might as well, especially with the law becoming more real. We didn't mean to hide it from you, but we haven't told anyone yet. We're really sorry, Drake." Draco was annoyed that they hadn't told him, but understood their position.

"It's fine, I mean it sucks you guys didn't tell me but I understand. I'm just glad you'll be exempt from this whole mess." He gave them a tight smile, "When are you gonna announce it to the public then?"

"We were thinking of just sending a small announcement into The Prophet, say we didn't want a high society wedding and that it was a small private affair we had planned for months. We don't want to make it seem like we just snuck off to defy the law ya know?" said Blaise with a slight shrug.

Draco nodded, it was a smart idea. The ministry tended to get antsy if you went against their plans. If they made it obvious they eloped for that reason some may start getting ideas and the ministry wouldn't like that, they'd probably blame the couple and cause all sorts of problems. It was better this way.

"Just make sure you tell my mother before you put it in The Prophet. Mother looks at you guys like her other children and she'll be very upset if she finds out about your marriage from the newspaper." Draco chuckled then, mother was still going to be pissed she was left out of the wedding anyway. "She's still going to be mad though, so good luck." Blaise chuckled but Pansy let out a groan at the thought, an angry disappointed Narcissa was never good.

Draco smiled as he watched Blaise and Pansy interact, he wanted what they had some day. His smile quickly turned down when he remembered the law, but who knows, maybe his mother was right. Maybe everything would work out for the better.

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 **A/N - I hope you liked it! Don't forget to leave a review and if you want go ahead and follow my (mainly) HP tumblr dracomalfxy**


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